The Calm Before The Storm
by Hopeless Alchemist
Summary: A prelude-ish thing for TSSA. Each chapter is a different event that happened in Myra's life before she met the Elrics. Genres vary along with ratings, but will go no higher than T.
1. The Haunted Island

**A/N: I got kinda bored, so I decided to write a story focused entirely on Myra. It's basically some drabbles circling around her life in Dublith and leading up to the day she and her brother tried to bring back their sister. This isn't a part of TSSA, but more like a prelude. I hope you enjoy :) **

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA or FMA: B. I only own my OCs and ideas. **

•

The summer I was ten was probably the hottest I'd ever felt. Being inside did nothing to help, so I ended up staying outside. I sat under the massive oak that was in the park, fanning myself with my hand. While the shade helped to cool me off, the back of my shirt was soaked in sweat and stuck to my skin.

After some time sitting there, I could hear the boys coming down the street. An evil smile crept up on my face.

"Finally, some entertainment," I thought out loud. I stood up and stepped out from behind the tree. The individuals coming down were Khyle, Isaiah, and Cameron. I may have been ridiculously short for my age, but I had sparred with each of them countless times.

"Hey guys!" I called out from where I stood. The looked around mindlessly, so I waved my hands to get their attention.

Khyle glanced over at me and frowned. "Shouldn't a girl like you be inside so that you don't burn yourself?" he questioned me in the haughty tone that he knew pissed me off.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What's that supposed to mean you spineless worm?" I retorted as I crossed my arms over my chest. "You're the one that's gonna shrivel up in the sun. Look! Your skin's already red as an apple."

I laughed as he growled at me, knowing that I was right.

Cameron, a scrawny ginger covered with freckles, stepped towards me. "Can it, you weird eyed freak!" he remarked, causing me to freeze. "At least he's not some kind of mutant."

The insult sent a burst energy through my limbs and I narrowed my eyes. "Take that back!" I shouted at him.

His face turned up in a grin as he shook his head. "No way, mutant girl. You…"

He didn't get to finish his sentence. I'd already made my move and kicked him in the crotch. I smiled sadistically as he doubled over.

Khyle and Isaiah's eyes grew wide as he went down. They both glanced up and were frozen when they saw the look on my face: it was one that said, "I'll do the same to you guys if you say anything else."

It took a little while, but eventually Cameron straightened out and looked back down at me. Our eyes met and it became a contest of who would break first. The others watched nervously, waiting for one of us to make the first move.

'Come on you little wimp,' I thought with a frown. As if on cue he turned his head away.

"Fine," he surrendered. "You win. I'm sorry I called you a mutant."

I nodded in approval. "And I'm sorry I kicked you."

It was his turn to nod and then he went on. "We were going to head to the lake later. If you want you can tag along."

A smile stretched across my face. "Awesome," I said.

"Cool. See ya then Myra."

"See ya!" I called as I ran towards the house.

When I got back, I rummaged through my dresser in attempt to find old clothes I could go swimming in. A dark shadow blocked my light and left a sinking feeling in my stomach. I slowly looked up and saw Kat towering over me, a disapproving glare in her blue eyes.

"Hi Sister," I said weakly.

"What are you doing?" she questioned.

I held up a short sleeved shirt. "Looking for lake clothes," I answered simply.

"And that gives you the right to throw all of your belongings on the floor?"

With a frown, I looked around where I was sitting. "Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'," she said in an irritated tone. "If you pick up your room then I'll let you go out."

With a quick nod as my answer I started to pick up my shirts and pants. She gave me her silent approval and left my room. Once she was gone I stuck my tongue out at the door.

"Stupid house rules," I grumbled.

•

"Myra!" Khyle called out to me. "What are you doing!?"

Grinning, I looked over at him from where I stood on the tall rock that jutted near the deep area of the lake. "Having some fun! It's the middle of summer and what better to do then go for a swim?"

The sun had set mostly and it was getting dark. Luckily I didn't have to do chores today, so I could stay out as long as I wanted. With a simple, fluid motion I jumped into the cool water with a massive splash. My bare feet kicked off of the bottom, propelling me upwards to the surface. I could hear the applause of my friends as I got to shore.

"I didn't think someone so small could make waves like that," Isaiah commented with a toothy grin. My eye twitching, I reached over to where he was and smacked the back of his head.

"Idiot," I grumbled as I sat down in the grass next to them. We were gathered next a fire pit and Cameron was trying to set it with two stones he'd found.

Snorting a laugh, I held my hands out for the rocks. He narrowed his eyes but gave in.

After examining what kind of rocks they were, I picked up a random stick and drew a simple transmutation circle. The boys all leaned in closer to watch what I was doing.

I put them both in the middle and touched the edge of the circle with my hands. In a matter of seconds the blue light glowed. I closed my eyes and focused like Drake had shown me.

When I was done, I handed them back to Cameron. He tested them and his eyes lit up at the sparks that had shot off of the rocks. Soon he had lit a fire that was big enough to light up the area we were in.

Nobody said anything for a while, but then Isaiah started.

"You know, some people say that Yock Island is haunted," he said in reference to the island in the middle of the lake.

Khyle scoffed. "How can it be haunted? It's not as if anyone ever goes over there."

As he said this, I glanced over at the island. My eyes grew wide when I saw a dim light across the water.

"Are you so sure about that?" I asked as I pointed. They all frowned and looked at the island. "Do you see the light?"

Pretty soon, they had all gone still.

"I didn't see anyone when I was here earlier, and there were no boats," Cameron said shakily. "There's no way someone could have gone over there without us noticing…"

A series of loud screams came from the direction of the island.

The four of us huddled together in fright. "Y-you guys heard that too, right?" Khyle asked.

My eyes still wide, I felt my heart race. "I did," I answered. "Cam? Isaiah? Did you guys…?"

"Yeah," they answered in unison.

"W-well," Khyle started, stammering again. "I-if it's over there, then we should be safe here right?"

I could feel Cameron shaking his head. "It got over there without us noticing, so that means it can come back, right?"

"Oh god. I wanna go home now," Isaiah said, trembling with fear.

Swallowing hard I stood up and looked closer at the island, trying to see what was going on. My eyes grew wide when I noticed movement.

"What is it?" Khyle asked.

I ignored him and continued looking. I heard twigs snap behind me and saw that the guys were all standing up by now.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"We're going home," Isaiah answered. "I don't know about you, but being some monster's snack doesn't sound like fun to me."

I frowned at them and turned back towards the island. The light had gone out and I couldn't see anything.

'What the…'

My thoughts were cut off by more screams. I noticed the boys running and started chasing after them. "Wait for me!" I shouted as I picked up my pace.

Later when I'd gotten home, I didn't tell my siblings anything about that night's adventure. I simply ran up to my room and stayed there until morning.

To this day I still have no clue of what had happened on Yock Island that night.

**A/N: Can anyone guess what happened? I'll give you this: she's ten, and what happened to Ed and Al when they were also around this age?**

**I'm still thinking about what I'll write about next. Just so you know, there will be chapters on the accident that caused Kat's death and the attempt at human transmutation. I know that there's some of that in TSSA, but I'm going to elaborate on it. It may get a little gruesome, but it's not going over the T rating. **

**Well until next time, see ya guys :)**


	2. Homemade Diamonds

**A/N: Hi guys! I've almost finished the next chapter for TSSA, so I decided to put up another chapter for this. I've decided to start titling the chapters, so here we go.**

* * *

_Homemade Diamonds_

•

A year after the Yock Island incident, the boys and I had been moved up to the sixth grade. It was the middle of October and by now I was relying on my large blue coat to keep me warm. Kat had made me cut my hair to my shoulders shortly before summer ended, so there wasn't much to keep my neck warm.

'It's hard to believe that the South could get so cold,' I thought as I walked home from school. A cool breeze brushed across my neck, sending shivers down my spine.

My face contorted itself into a grimace as I pulled my coat closer to me. Luckily, the house was only another block away. I picked my pace and started running. I nearly crashed into Kat as I hurried inside.

"Sorry Sister," I said as I flopped onto the large couch. As I sank into the cushion, I watched as Kat shook her head at me.

She looked over at me as she fixed the bottom of her shirt. "I swear if you'd gone any faster you would've knocked me out."

I snorted a laugh and sat up. "I was watching where I was going," I said to defend my position.

"Yeah, sure," she said sarcastically as she got her coat from the stand next to the door. Kat turned back to me and opened the door again. "I'm going to go get something to eat for dinner. Drake is up in his study, so don't go bothering him. I'll be back later."

"Okay," I said with an innocent smile. Her narrowed eyes showed that she didn't believe me.

"I'm serious Myra. You don't need to get involved with whatever it is he's doing."

With a childish roll of my eyes I said, "It's just alchemy. What's so bad about it?"

"Just because you're good at something doesn't mean you should go about doing it," she warned. As if the universe was on her side, the sound of an explosion came from upstairs, a series of curses following.

Kat sighed in irritation as I laughed. "My point exactly."

Toning down my laughs, I raised an eyebrow at her. "Shouldn't we check on him?"

She waved me off and gave me one of her joking smiles. "Nah, it'll take more than that to kill your brother," she commented. "Looks like we're stuck with him yet." I laughed again and she left the house with a quick good-bye.

After waiting for her to leave the yard, I rushed upstairs and banged on the door. Drake opened it and smoke came out in clouds. I coughed and noticed my brother. He was covered in something that resembled ashes, causing my face to contort itself into a look of confusion.

"What kind of experiments are you testing up here?" I questioned.

Drake pulled off his glasses and wiped them off with the edge of his shirt before placing them back on his face. His gray eyes were playful as he answered. "Atoms are a bit trickier than I thought," he said with a smirk.

My eyes grew wide with excitement as I jumped up and down like the little kid I was knowing that he was talking about alchemy. "Ooh! Show me! Show me! Show me!" I demanded with a massive smile on my face.

He was hesitant but eventually he sighed and motioned for me to come in. He closed the door while I stepped over to the massive fabric circle that was laid down in the middle of the room. There was some kind of powder in it, similar to what Drake was covered in.

"What the heck is this stuff anyway?" I asked as I pinched a small pile of it with my fingers. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as I let it fall like black snow.

He kneeled down beside me. "If I tell you then you've gotta promise to not let Sister know I let you in here."

Nodding furiously I said, "I promise," before turning my attention back to the circle. "So what is it?"

My brother smirked. "You've been sneaking around, trying to learn about alchemy since you first learned to read. So what's the sixth element on the Table?" he asked me.

"That's too easy. Carbon of course." A light went off in my head and I gasped with my sudden realization. "Oh! It's carbon powder. But why are you messing with this stuff?"

"You know how you can change the hardness of carbon by changing the way the atoms are arranged, right?"

I snorted a laugh. "Of course. I'm 11 now Brother; these are easy questions. I'm still not seeing how this has anything to do with why you have so much powder here."

Drake smirked again at my answer to the question. "The reason for the powder is because I'm trying to make a diamond."

My eyes grew wide. "Diamonds from carbon powder!? That has to be as illegal as making your own gold!" I exclaimed.

"Calm down, Myra," he said sternly, narrowing his eyes at me from behind his smudged lenses. "This is for experimentation only. I don't plan on selling what I ever I successfully create, and for that matter it doesn't look like I'll be making anything any time soon."

"You're such a pessimist," I joked as I elbowed him softly.

"It's a lot easier to break down the atoms then to build them up," he said in his defense. "It's a complicated process to focus on such small structures."

Nodding occasionally as he spoke, I stared at the pile of carbon that was gathered in the middle of the circle. "Can I try?" I asked when he was done speaking.

My brother was obviously taken aback with this, but eventually he stepped back and let me have my way. "Go ahead."

'Here we go!' I thought as I grinned widely. I pressed my hands down on the stiff fabric and focused on letting energy flow through me. Not daring to even blink, I stared at the pile with complete focus. The blue electricity branched out from the outer edges and traced along the lines until it got to the center, where it connected before disappearing. In place of the black powder sat a crude gemstone.

Drake was dumbfounded. "That's amazing Myra!" he exclaimed. "I couldn't even get it in a solid state like this; it just blew up in my face, literally."

"Took me longer than I'd have liked, but it took a good bit of focus," I stated as I stood up. I brushed my pants off and walked into the circle. I bent down and picked up the 'diamond' that I had made. It was small, only about five centimeters in width, and was very dull. There was no shine, but then again it hadn't been made with thousands of years of heat and pressure, just a random eleven year old kid.

"Amazing," Drake said as he stared with wide eyes. "You really are a prodigy at this kind of thing."

I grinned like the little kid I was. "I'm not a prodigy; I'm just awesome like that."

My brother smirked. "That too," he said. His pleased smile left and was replaced with a look of irritation.

Frowning, I nudged him with my shoulder. "What?"

"Sister told you to leave me alone while she went out, didn't she?" he asked as he looked down at me.

I froze for a moment before folding my shoulders over my chest. "So what? I'm good at alchemy but she wants me to do anything else. I don't care if she finds out."

Drake sighed. "It's not you she'll get mad at, it's me. I'm the one that let you in here."

"How about this?" I started to get his attention. "We don't tell her, eat dinner like normal, and carry on as if I did my homework instead of bothering you."

This caused him to laugh and for smiles to stretch across both of our faces. He put an arm around my shoulders and gave me one of his weird side hugs before sticking me in a headlock so that he could toss around my already unkempt hair.

I let out a cry of irritation as he rubbed his clenched fist against my head. "Hey!" I protested as I tried escaping from his reach. "Brother! Stop that!"

Drake eventually let me go and laughed as I tried to fix the mass of hair on my head. I scowled at him with evil in my violet eyes.

"I wish Sister hadn't made me get that haircut," I complained as I gave up. "It's easier to fix a pony tail."

"You're hair grows so fast it'll be back to your waist by the end of winter," he said reassuringly. "Besides, if you hadn't gotten it cut it'd be down to your knees by now. And isn't it easier to beat up your friends this way?"

Eyes narrowed, I hmphed at him before walking over to the large wooden desk. There was a set of notes with intricate circles drawn all over them. I frowned at the sheer complexity of the symbols and designs. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen.

"Hey Brother," I beckoned. "What's this for?"

The next thing I knew I was being turned away from the desk and pushed out of the room. Frowning, I furrowed my eyebrows at him as I found myself back in the hallway.

"It's not for you to see. I'll show you if the time ever comes, and that's_ only _if." His grey eyes had darkened, causing a certain discomfort to awaken within me. "Now go do your homework like you were supposed to."

Following orders, I turned on my heel and stormed down the steps to grab my stuff off of the couch to take it into my room.

"Irritating Drake," I grumbled. "What could be so important about a couple of fancy circles?"

* * *

Little did I know then that those circles would be what brought me down to my knees. It was only a matter of time…


End file.
